


We're family, right? Riiight

by Redzik



Series: New's Year resolution 2019 [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics), Under the Red Hood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Sleep Deprivation, Time Travel, jaydick_flashfic: atonement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 13:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17981831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redzik/pseuds/Redzik
Summary: Number 1In which Jason is the one to bring family together. But it is still because of Dick.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A part of this story in three different versions was sitting on my computer for almost three years, making it one of my first ones I written for Batman fandom. The prompt of atonement made me dig it up and finally do something with it.  
> And time travel is there, because apparently I'm unable to write a fic without it.  
> I'm not sure I'll manage to finish it today, so I split it into chapters.

Jason never was so grateful that he decided to have few of his safe houses in the almost empty neighborhood. It made smuggling Batman and the second Red Hood into the apartment through his front door that much easier. Though why he didn’t dump them somewhere for the other Bats to find he didn’t know. It wasn’t right somehow. Like _he_ specifically was supposed to help them out. And of course there was the little matter of Bruce being dead.

It was a shock at first, seeing Batman alive and well. Then came the familiar rage and anger. How the man could be just standing there ready to fight Jason when he caused them all so much pain with his charade of playing dead? And then Jason saw another Red Hood and his thoughts about pummeling Bruce into the ground got derailed again. After some arguing and death threats they came to a truce. Mainly for Batman not to interfere and Red Hood not to kill anyone. Further discussion revealed that the other Red Hood and Batman were from the past. Just great. Now Jason had to be careful about that he said and did. Although it could actually be fun since Batman didn’t know who the Red Hood was yet.

However all the plans for fun were shoot to hell as soon as he crossed into his living room.

He heard Batman sucking in a startled breath behind him and the Red Hood cursing lowly, readying his gun. Jason himself was staring, because _Dick_.

Dick Grayson, or rather Nightwing, was sitting on his couch slumped forward, head hanging low. Jason’s spare leather jacket was draped across his shoulders and the blue striped hands were crossed in front clutching the lapels, keeping it in place. On the coffee table in front of him was opened bottle of whiskey already half empty and next to it a shot glass full of the alcoholic liquid.

What was Nightwing doing here instead running around as Batman, in Jason’s safe house at that?

Jason quickly ran the dates in his head. No tragic anniversary close to this day. Nobody else was dead as far as he knew – he was fairly sure somebody would notify him if that was the case. Bad night on patrol was the most probable cause, then.

“What are you doing here?”

Dick jumped, obviously startled and raised his head slowly. Jason’s breath caught in his throat at the sight. Nightwing wasn't wearing his mask. His face was pale and drawn. Eyes bloodshot, glazed over with huge, dark bags underneath. Jason didn’t think he could ever see someone looking more exhausted than Tim when he was close to crashing after working for several days straight living only on coffee, but Dick certainly managed to prove him wrong.

“Shit,” Jason cursed, shucking his gloves and walking over to Dick, while Dick blinked at him lethargically with dilated pupils. He put his hand to Nightwing’s forehead lightly. He was definitely warm, but not alarmingly so. This close he could see the shivers wracking his brother’s body and Dick kept swallowing to relieve his obviously parched throat. “What happened?”

“I don't-” Dick started with horribly rough voice, then stopped. Went with something else, “Can I stay?”

Jason frowned.

“Did you get gassed with Joker’s toxin?” he asked, because he needed to know what he was dealing with here. It was weird seeing Dick like that. He very much doubted that the Bat clan would let him get into this state, so it had to be something else. He prayed it wasn’t the drugs. “Poison Ivy?” Jason continued, when Nightwing shook his head in negative. “Fear gas? Magic? Are you drunk?”

“No,” Dick sighed. “It wouldn’t be safe.”

“Safe?” Jason echoed.

“I’m on stimulants. Leslie approved stimulants,” Dick added quickly before Jason could even begin to get angry. “There’s just too much for me to do.”

Oh God, the Bat clan did let Dick get this bad. What the hell?

Jason crossed his arms and glared down at Dick.

“When was the last time you slept?”

Dick blinked, thinking.

“I managed to get a few hours on Wednesday?” he said uncertainly.

“Jesus Christ, Dick!” Jason shouted. “It’s Monday!!!”

Jason swallowed down the rest of his rant as Dick flinched and curled his body into a ball, pulling the jacket tighter around him. He looked like a child in his father's clothes. So small, vulnerable, sick and scared. Jason froze at the realization, that Nightwing was _afraid_. Of Jason. He swallowed hard past the lump in his throat and ignored the stabbing pain in his heart.

“Just go to sleep, yeah?” Jason said quietly.

Dick let out a bitter laugh.

“You think I didn’t try? I can’t.”

“It’s okay,” Jason soothed. “I’ll be right back, don’t move.” He collected the bottle and the glass from the table and turned to go to the kitchen only to come face to face with Batman throwing Nightwing a disappointed glare. Right. He totally forgot about them.

“Take your judgment and show it up your ass, fucker,” he growled pushing past Bruce roughly.

Once in the kitchen he grabbed a glass and filled it with bottled water from the fridge. He briefly contemplated giving Dick actual sleeping pills, but he had no idea how it would affect his already drugged up system. The power of suggestion had to be enough for this.

And indeed it was. It probably wouldn’t work if Dick wasn’t so out of it. As it was, he barely got halfway into his drink before his eyelids closed permanently and Jason had to rescue the glass from his limp fingers.

Jason put one hand on Dick’s neck to support his head and the other, after he disposed the glass on the table, on his arm and gently guided him down to lay on the couch. Just before Dick was completely horizontal he jerked awake, grabbing Jason’s lower arms in a vice like grip. Jason stilled letting the frightened blue eyes to roam the surroundings and waiting until they focused on him.

“It’s just me,” he reassured.

Dick immediately relaxed, his hold on Jason slackening as he allowed himself to be lowered all the way down. Jason tugged the throw blanket off the back of the couch and tucked it around Dick. By the time he was done, the man was sleeping peacefully.

“What did you gave him?” Batman growled accusingly.

“Water,” Jason shrugged, lightly running fingers through Dick’s hair to make sure he really was out and because he wanted to.

“If you gave him-”

“It’s not your business what I do or not do with Nightwing,” Jason interrupted. “I thought I was clear about you not interfering with anything, to which you agreed to. And for the record I wouldn’t give him any more drugs in his state. It was just water. Now shut up, I need to make a call.”

Jason left Batman brooding over sleeping Dick and made his way back to the kitchen to have some privacy to remove his helmet.

The other Red Hood was there, rummaging through the cupboards and finding some canned food. He scanned the contents, shrugged and put a pot on the stove.

Yeah, food was a good idea. They would need to go grocery shopping in the morning to make something more substantial than what Jason had for emergencies.

Jason put the helmet on the table and fluffed his flattened hair. He gulped down the glass of whiskey he confiscated earlier and pulled his phone out, choose a number and waited. And waited. Finally the dial tone stopped and the call was picked up. Jason took a breath to start talking, but was interrupted by the recorded message asking him to leave his number for return call. He disconnected looking at the phone with a frown. Something happened to Alfred? He always picked up the phone, especially the middle of the night calls.

Uneasily he choose the next best contact and the call was picked up almost immediately.

“Hey, O,” Jason greeted.

“Red Hood,” Oracle replied. “It’s good to hear from you. What I can do for you?”

“I tried to call the manor, but nobody answered.”

“And nobody would. The ‘Cave is still operational for emergencies, but Dick moved to the penthouse a few days after the funeral.”

Yeah, funeral. Jason watched from afar and as soon as the service was over he hightailed it out of Gotham. He couldn’t stay. He needed to get away to sort through everything that happened. The rest of the Batfamily would be fine without him. They had each other.

And now Dick was almost sick from exhaustion.

“I need to talk to Alfred. Can you give me the number?”

“Is it something that you really need to call him about, or we can help you instead? I’d rather not disturb him right now. He finally took some time off and went to England to be with his family. He really took Bruce’s death hard.”

Yeah, the poor man was completely broken. Bruce was like a son to him. Tim and Damian weren’t better. In fact the only one even remotely composed at the funeral was Dick himself. He undoubtedly was a steady presence for them all to turn to, ever the perfect son of Batman.

“I wanted to talk to him about Dick-”

“Oh, you talked to Dick?” Barbara’s tone turned icy. “If you talk with him again tell him to stop this temper tantrum and suck it up. Everybody works overtime. I’m busy with coordinating other teams to be at his beck and call all the time. Do you know how much sleep I got in the past two days? None. And he had the nerve to ask me to find someone to help him with Gotham. Which I did! And he threw a hissy fit over it.”

“What?” Jason asked, completely lost.

“Are you planning to go to Gotham?” Barbara didn’t even wait for an answer. “Good. Try to be more welcoming of her than Dick was. Which was surprising, given that they have a history and Dick is the kind of a person to have good relationships with his exes. I thought they would work fine together, they certainly did so before.”

“Who?”

“Tarantula,” Oracle replied and Jason almost crushed the phone in the sudden anger. “Her name is-”

“Catalina Flores,” Jason gritted out.

Of course Jason knew what happened with Tarantula. He accidentally came across Dick on the anniversary of that day at a random rooftop, where Grayson was in the process of drinking himself to death. Jason sat with him, horrified as Dick drunkenly recounted step by step what had happened then. Ever since, he was on the on and off hunt for Tarantula. He now wished he was more committed to his search of her.

“Oh, you know her? Good. With you and her in the city Dick finally should stop whining.”

“You invited her to Gotham,” Jason said, practically burning with the rage filling his body. No wonder Dick ran to Jason’s safe house. It was one of the few Jason was sure the Bat didn’t know about and didn’t have any records of. Jason studiously ignored the question how Dick knew about it. “You gave her access to our resources and to Dick.”

Red Hood abandoned his cooking to stare intently at Jason.

“Well yes, she’s here to help after-”

“If that raping hag laid a finger on him again, I’ll be coming for you, you self-absorbed bitch!” Jason snarled and hung up.


	2. Chapter 2

“What raping hag?” Red Hood demanded over the ringtone as Barbara tried to call him back immediately.

Jason put the phone on silent and dropped it on the table, breathing through the calming techniques.

Red Hood obviously put the context of the talk together, because he jerked back, turning his helmeted head in the direction where Dick was resting on the couch.

“Yes,” Jason ground out in reply to the silent question.

“She’s fucking dead,” Red Hood growled.

“Who is dead?” Batman suddenly asked from the doorway.

Only years of training prevented Jason from a startled jump. Angry, he whirled to face Bruce and jabbed a finger at him.

“Didn’t I tell you to fuck off?”

Batman went very still and very pale.

“Jason?” Bruce whispered.

Shit. Jason forgot he removed his helmet. Could this night be any worse? Wait, no. He wasn’t thinking about it, least it come true. It was fine and dandy. He had a half dead Dick sleeping on his couch, homicidal younger self ready to explode at any moment and emotionally stunted Bat having an emotional crisis. He was fine and so ready to deal with all of this.

Right.

“You know,” he addressed Red Hood. Better get him away from any potential reaction Bruce can have now and patrol should calm him down some. Jason himself won’t come out. He needed to make sure Dick was okay and safe. He wasn’t about to leave him alone for more than few minutes, especially with Bruce that really may or may be not from the past. “The city probably could use the reminder, that Red Hood is around. Just don’t kill anyone, especially any of the Bats. And if you happen to come across the bitch...” Jason shrugged. “Just come back in a few hours, yeah?”

Red Hood seemed to think it over, holding himself carefully enough for Jason to realize his younger self was also doing the calming routine.

“Nah,” Red Hood shrugged nonchalantly and went back to cooking. He removed his helmet now that the cat was out of the bag.

That seemed to push Bruce deeper into his breakdown.

“There, there,” Jason patted the man awkwardly on the shoulder. He didn’t get any reaction so he squeezed between Batman and the door-frame and went to Dick.

Nightwing was tossing slightly around, his brow furrowed and tiny groans coming from his mouth. Jason quickly crouched by his side and ran his hand through his hair gently.

“Shhh,” he soothed softly. “It’s okay. I’m here. You’re safe.”

Something warm bloomed in his chest as Dick quieted down and settled into undisturbed sleep at his voice. He was worried earlier that Dick was afraid of him, but it probably had more to do with Tarantula in town than Jason himself.

Satisfied for a moment, Jason thought over the immediate problem, namely the sleeping arrangements. It was late, all of them needed rest even for a few hours before they tackled all of their problems. Besides the people who could help them were probably asleep already. Dick would have to stay with him, for safety reasons and comfort in the case of nightmares, so they will take the bed. That would leave the couch free, and beside spare pillows and blankets Jason vaguely recalled having a cot shoved in the depth of one of the closets.

With his mind up, Jason carefully picked Dick up and carried him to the bedroom. He dumped him on the bed and collected the sleeping equipment for his two other guests. He placed pillows and blankets on the couch, propped the cot against the arm and went to the kitchen to check on the past people.

Bruce, sans the cowl and Red Hood were sitting stiffly at the table, staring at each other while eating.

Jason shook his head at them, took some food for himself and ate it hurriedly. He put the bowl in the sink, told them to not to kill each other and went back to bedroom. After wrestling Dick out of his suit and making sure he was warm and comfortable, Jason shucked his own clothes and crawled into bed himself. Between one breath and the other he was asleep, only to be woken by an alarm a few hour later.

Jason groaned and rolled off the bed to search for the source of the annoying noise. It turned out to be Dick’s phone.

He stared uncomprehendingly at the screen for a few seconds. Who needed to have a reminder to take a kid to school set for five in the morning? Jason shook his head and turned off the alarm. He glanced at Dick, who didn’t even stir during all that ruckus. Jason frowned and leaned over, gently putting his hand on Dick’s forehead to check for fever. It was gone. Small mercies.

Jason buried himself back under the covers and took a few minutes to break into Dick’s phone and poke around.

The sleep deprivation got to his brother, because he had a whole list of reminders set up. Jason went to check his calendar and balked at how full it was. He scrolled back all the way to funeral two months ago and even then it was full of things for Dick to do.

Meetings with lawyers, with child services, with board of the Wayne Enterprises, with Lucius, with informants, with Red Hood’s lieutenant, interviews, charity galas, patrol as Nightwing, patrol as Batman, patrol as police officer, Justice League missions, training, organizing a funeral, adoption, Talia…

Jesus, did the man had the time to even eat something between everything? Wasn’t wrangling Lucius and WE Tim’s thing anyway? And why bother with Red Hood’s operations at all?

Jason looked from the phone to a still form laying next to him, stomach churning with guilt.

When he left after the funeral he was sure all of them would take care of each other. That they would have each other’s back. As Jason scrolled through the calls log he realized how mistaken he was in that belief. Calls only from lawyers, child services, school and other business related stuff. There were a few calls from Alfred, but that was it. No one from the family or tons of friends tried to contact Dick. Even Jason.

Shit.

Did they really just went on with their lives and left Dick to deal with everything alone?

Why Jason didn’t even check in in all this time? Dick reached out to him time and time again after he came back, guns blazing. He made sure Jason was well taken care of as much as Jason would let him, which was not much but Dick still did it. And Jason couldn’t show him the same courtesy and even ask how he was doing after Bruce’s death. Jesus, with all of that did Dick even had the time to grieve?

No more.

Jason sprang to his feet and got dressed quickly. He took Dick’s and his own phone and left the bedroom quietly. In the living room younger Jason and Batman were locked in an impassive stare down. They didn’t even look at him and Jason got the feeling they were at it all night.

Deciding it was too early to deal with them, Jason continued to the kitchen where he set the pot to boil water for coffee. He checked Dick’s schedule for the day. Getting Damian to school, talk with Lucius, three meetings for WE, afternoon shift at work, meeting with Jason’s lieutenant, patrol. Yeah, no. Jason made himself coffee and picked up his phone. First and foremost the WE.

“Hello?” Tim picked up on the second ring, sounding distracted. Probably the boy didn’t sleep through the night, too focused on whatever he was working on even now. Too bad, Jason wasn’t going to be charitable.

“Why aren’t you taking care of Wayne Enterprises?”

“Jason? Is that you?”

“Yeah, Replacement, it’s me.” A few seconds of silence, “Well?”

Tim sighed.

“Dick is perfectly capable of running a company. Besides I’ve been staying with Titans the past two months.”

“Wait, what?”

“Don’t you know?” Tim said bitterly. “Dick gave Robin to Damian.”

Fuck. What the hell Dick was thinking?! He knew himself how it felt being replaced, so how he could do that to someone he called little brother?

“Tell me everything,” Jason said and settled in for the tale.

Tim told him how Dick struggled to control Damian and his idea to make him Robin to curb somewhat the temper tantrums. He explained Dick’s reasoning of why Tim didn’t need to be Robin anymore and should find his own superhero identity.

Jason calmed down through Tim’s recount of the events. While it was shitty thing to do, Jason could see where Dick was coming from. And he tried to explain his decision and made sure Tim knew he still had a place in the family, something Bruce definitely dropped the ball on.

It sucked, but…

“You know he’s right, yeah?” Jason asked. “You are our equal. We did teach you everything we could. You are ready to make a name for yourself. You don’t need Robin anymore. Damian certainly does.”

“I know,” Tim sighed. “It sucks though.”

“It does,” Jason hummed, an inkling of an idea blooming in his brain. Dick always insisted, that he was Tim’s favorite and the younger boy looked up to him, so why not? “Maybe I’ll have something for you. But that’s talk for another day. You have a meeting with Lucius at eight and then three others for WE.”

“What?” Tim cried. “Jason, no. I’m not going to-”

“Meeting at eight,” Jason repeated sternly. “If you don’t show up, me slitting your throat will be the last of your worries. And bring what you have on time travel.”

“Jaso-”

Jason hung up despite Tim’s protests. The boy didn’t call him back, so Jason took that as victory and made a call to the police station to inform them Dick won’t be coming to work for a few days.

Now Damian. Jason debated calling, but ultimately decided against it. Instead he lectured his guests about proper behavior, threatened with bodily harm if something were to happen to Dick and went to collect the Demon Spawn himself.

Damian decidedly wasn’t pleased. The kid insisted he didn’t need to attend any school and was fine on his own. However he shut up when Jason pointed out that Dick wanted him to have normal childhood and him causing trouble at school and acting out made difficult to win the rights to keep Damian in Gotham with them and he would be send back to Talia.

With Damian left at the front door of the school, Jason went to get some groceries. He made a call to his lieutenant on the way to get an update on goings of his gang and was surprised to learn Nightwing was helping them to set up a legal business, something Jason was thinking about, but didn’t have the time or drive to put into reality. Well, now he will need to step up.

Jason, Red Hood and Batman were having breakfast in the living room when Dick emerged from the bedroom. He was freshly showered, hair still damp and dripping, but overall he looked marginally better after having some sleep. Not much, but anything was an improvement. He was wearing loose pants and shirt Jason left for him, still too big for his frame, but Dick looked warm and comfy anyway. And he was cuddled into Jason’s jacket like it was his security blanket. Hell, maybe it was.

Jason liked to think that for Dick, despite being against it, just _knowing_ Jason would kill for him and get rid of his attacker permanently was bringing him much needed comfort. It was just basic need, to feel safe, it didn’t have to do with morals.

Dick looked at them, blinked, rubbed his eyes and blinked at them again.

“I was fairly sure I hallucinated you all,” he commented.

Jason snorted and held up his arm.

“Come here,” he said quietly.

Dick smiled slightly and went easily enough, sitting next to Jason and curling into his side while Jason carefully rested his arm around his shoulders.

“I missed you,” he said, squeezing Jason’s chest in a hug. “How are you?”

“I’m okay,” Jason nuzzled the wet hair. Dick melted against him. “Pretty pissed, but okay.”

It was new, that easy affection, but Jason didn’t mind as much as he thought he would.

“What got you pissed?” Dick asked stealing a bit of pancake from Jason’s plate.

“Oh, just about everything,” Jason replied casually. “But _her_ being in the city. Yeah. Pretty much that.”

Dick tensed and pulled away suddenly.

“Jason,” he said in warning.

“I will chase her away from Gotham _and_ Blüdhaven with minimal damage,” Jason stated. “But after that she’s fair game.”

Dick stared at him for a moment longer, but then deflated and started pilling food on his own plate. He learned how to pick up his battles apparently.

“So,” Dick swallowed the bite and nodded at younger Jason and Bruce. “Alternate reality?”

“The past,” Bruce muttered.

“More complicated,” Dick observed.

Jason slowly inched his arm around him again and Dick leaned into it without any pause.

“Do you think any Leaguers could help?” Jason asked.

“They all went for a mission on another planet.”

“Why didn’t you go with them?”

Dick gave him a look.

“I couldn’t leave Damian and Gotham alone.”

“You think we could get a speedster to take them back?” Jason mused.

“Flash went with them.”

“Zatanna?”

“Gone too.”

“Constantine?”

“Last I heard he was tracking some demon, but we could check.”

“Yeah, later,” Jason decided. “Eat.”

“I am literally eating right now,” Dick demonstrated. Then his eyes widened and looked around in panic. “Wait! What time is it?”

“Hmmm, some time after ten,” Jason said with satisfaction.

“Shit!” Dick sprang to his feet and Jason grabbed his wrist. “Jay, let go! I have to-”

“I already took the Demon to school. Tim is at WE. You have a week free from work. And I can handle things with my own men. So the only thing you _have to_ is eat and then go back to sleep.”

“Tim is here?” Dick let Jason tug him back down and practically spoon feed him. “He’s so pissed at me he didn’t talk to me for two months.”

“I know,” Jason said and left it at that. There will be time for talks later. For now Dick needed comfort and rest.

Dick was almost finished with his breakfast when he started to drop. It wasn’t quite right. He wasn’t that tired.

“You drugged the food,” he complained.

Jason laughed and picked him up.

“A dose for _babies_ , sweetheart, just so you know.”

“I hate you,” Dick groaned, burying his face into Jason’s shoulder. His last thought was that he will never live this down.

Bruce and Red Hood went for a walk after breakfast, so Jason picked up a book and situated himself on the bed beside sleeping Dick.

Just a couple hours later Tim showed up. He crawled to Dick’s other side and curled in, apologizing profusely.

“It’s alright,” Dick slurred sleepily.

Sometime later Damian climbed in through the window, tutted at their cozy bundle and strategically placed himself to wriggle between Jason and Dick.

“I apologize, Grayson,” Demon Spawn choked out.

“It’s okay, Dami,” Dick sounded more awake this time.

Jason didn’t like it one bit.

“Just go back to sleep, idiot,” he said. “We’ll be here.”

Dick hummed, reaching for Jason’s hand. Jason let him intertwine their fingers and didn’t pull away when Dick fell asleep.

They could stay here like that for a while. The real world could wait a few hours more.


End file.
